Adelaide and Aiyana's relationship is very special to me. It's something that some people who are close to me even struggle to understand the writing of (and I often refuse to explain LOL), but I like them.. Mentally ill together. Get better then reconnect. Continue to be painful in ways but still love one another and try to give each other the benefit of the doubt. Comforting.
Yes this is not addressed in the original script but might be eventually. Adelaide helped Aiyana with a lot of her wardrobe. She likely still wears random lolita pieces but just not in a way that is lolita, you know? Like, she still wears capes and cardigans. She probably still has full OPs and JSKs in her possession, but she is most comfortable in formless clothing.
Aiyana feels discomfort around her behavior being pathologized and feels this is common in psychiatry. She also.. doesn't.. care for a lot of it. She doesn't feel like a lot of psychiatric stuff benefits her in anyway..
She's somewhat averse people in the field as a whole with Adelaide being an exception due to Adelaide primarily helping her with things that make her seem independent in the Eyes of the Law. But her distaste is also likely influenced by knowing Adelaide.
There's a possibiltiy Eleanor would think Aiyana hates her because Aiyana dislikes talking and Eleanor is not sure how to cope with that... Also same, with Aiyana. Eleanor can come as standoffish but she isn't actually.
They'd also probably be awkward around one another.. Like, if everyone leaves the room, they'd just be looking at each other LOL. They communicate so differently.
Aiyana would probably get along better with Calliope in a one on one scenario... Eleanor is hard to talk to.. She has a very narrow range of interests. I do like to think about specific scenarios with them though.. Menhera homebound girls meet up and everyone suffers.
Honestly.... Probably lesbianism. Adelaide likes Aiyana's appearance and general demeanor even if she isn't keenly aware of it. The girls she deems as special are people who display 'otherness' in a way that's hard for her to understand and it's something she finds herself drawn to.. Aiyana is visibly mentally ill and always isolated.. it appealed to her at the time.
I don't have drawings of Aiyana and Adelaide together.. So many things to make...
I like Adelaide :) Adelaide is not a trustworthy person to describe her own life due to the conflict of appearing to have a high ego while having a low self esteem. She believes her life has been good because she has been able to live self-suffienciently, but Aiyana is the opposite of everything Adelaide aspires to have for herself. This to Adelaide means Aiyana's life was worse because she failed to become a functioning adult capable of making decisions for herself.
Despite Adelaide's desire to be self sufficient, she is a very tired woman because she is constantly chasing self-suffiency.. She is envious of Aiyana having a house left to her and Aiyana's ability to just not participate in life.. while Adelaide feels like she must keep working, making stressful decisions, and keep pushing herself harder. She is constantly uncomfortable and stressed, hence her tendency to drink. She knows some aspects of her life are dysfunctional but she cannot identify how to fix it due to many of her problems being core parts of her personality, so she copes. Adelaide especially struggles with a lack of empathy.. She can understand other emotions from an objective viewpoint but she cannot.. feel them. But she also desires to not be a bad person despite knowing she can be cruel and at times sharp.
Regarding her family, Adelaide's relationship with her family.. is.. Like.. Her family had children to raise them to be functioning members of society. She keeps in contact with them and vice versa because it is useful. Everyone in her family views the family dynamic as one that is useful. You can always go back to family if everything goes wrong. She does not like relying on them but she knows if she needs to, she can. Her family has similar feelings about her. They'd probably be okay borrowing money from each other. They are all very reliable people, but they are not very friendly with one another outside of basic pleasantries. Her house had problems (ie the lack of emotional availability amongst everyone), but she'd never describe it as traumatic or abusive.
For this reason, Adelaide struggles to wrap her head around Aiyana's feelings about her mom and will listen with her eyebrows furrowed and with a frown. Even though she can't empathize, she recognizes why Aiyana is the way that she is, and her understanding of Aiyana increased during their time apart due to her degree and leaving her small town.... She does not want to involve herself a lot of the time, but she also does not think life is fair, so she doesn't mind helping Aiyana in unfair ways (ie giving Aiyana paperwork that describes her as being higher functioning than she is.)
To add on, Adelaide loves Aiyana very much. She does not want to help Aiyana, but she will if she feels like its a problem Aiyana cannot solve on her own. There are not many people Adelaide loves, and Aiyana is one of them. Even in their time apart, she thought about her and Aiyana influenced Adelaide's life choices in many ways...
For other notes, there are a few things that could've happened to Aiyana. It depends on if Aiyana would allow her family to easily take her things or if she got into a legal battle.. Her family is bad, but they do not express a desire to outright harm her- it's just their own desires tend to push Aiyana to the wayside. They would not leave her homeless, but she would not live an easy life either. Chances are she'd end up with some family members with some kind of guardian or in a home for disabled people. No one in her family would want to take care of Aiyana, but being her guardian would give them access to her resources and you know.. They want to take care of dead relative's disabled daughter in an abstract way. Keeping her in their house and doing the bare minimum or putting her in a home would be enough for them.
Regarding friendships, Adelaide is Aiyana's only friend (well not including Eva and Emma), but Aiyana did have acquiantances.. She was isolated but saw her family from time to time before her mother's death and the guardianship issues.. Adelaide doesn't like being her only friend but can't fix it, and she doesn't feel like she has room to talk. Her own friendships are usually born out of necessity or proximity, and they tend to fizzle out over time.. She gets along with other mentally ill women mostly, hence her continuing to be in contact with Calliope and Eleanor... Also she likes T4T friendships, but she just doesn't have anyone like that in her hometown...
It sparks joy to answer. I think about them a lot. I think Aiyana's mother tried very hard to raise Aiyana. They really did love each other very much, but Aiyana's mom was just raising a severely low functioning girl alone without a support network. She also had her own obsessive tendencies and wanted to avoid Aiyana making the same mistakes she did.
She likely picked and preened at her all the time. She wanted to keep Aiyana well read, keep her safe, clean, and most of all, she wanted her daughter to have some kind of legacy (hence the house stuff). Their relationship was likely defined by the two not wanting to fail the other but while also over relying on each other for any kind of support.
They were both home bodies. Aiyana's mom worked from home due to chronic illness. The two likely had no privacy.. No locked door household. Their life outside of perfectionism and preening was defined by doing normal things with too much closeness while not changing as Aiyana's aged. She probably never stopped bathing Aiyana or cooking for her, and she kept child locks on a lot of things... Aiyana's mother took care of everything that could be an issue leaving Aiyana lacking basic skills.
Aiyana also likely had to help her mom a lot as her illness progressed. Aiyana's mom wouldn't know about Adelaide because she was so caught up in her stress whether or not Aiyana told her. To Aiyana's mom, anyone at school was 'a little school friend.' Their relationship became defined by the two talking at each other but not really listening.. So Aiyana probably tried to tell her..
When Aiyana realized she was a lesbian, she probably became more tightlipped about Adelaide's existence because she's bad at keeping secrets... But her mom never asked either... I don't think Aiyana's mother ever was outwardly homophobic around Aiyana, but she raised her with a focus on her relationship with men and being safe from them, especially since Aiyana has a neurodevelopmental disorder. I don't think Aiyana knew how her Mom would react to her sexuality deviating from how she'd been raised, so it was something she never shared with her.
Aiyana probably tries hard not to think about her mother extensively. She likely fixated on her way too much in a way that makes her feel shameful, but she also wishes she could've had the chance to grow with her mom and like.. Have a normal relationship. Maybe her mother could've been at her wedding. Maybe she would've recovered if she went to the doctor... She wonders about what could've been.
No! But I am happy you asked. I imagine it's because of her headwrap. Aiyana's headwrap is purely ornamental in nature- likely having religious significance further back in her lineage but becoming ornamental for the youth in her culture.
For Aiyana in particular, she likely struggled with doing her hair when she was younger. The headscarf acted as an easy way to style her hair while also being culturally significant to her. She likely stopped wearning them at some point after her mother died, but she's not averse to them.. But she has Emma to help her do her hair all the time!
(That is to say, I do think people in Aiyana's family are still religious, but she was a bit isolated)
